Seven-time MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi had a go at NASCAR last week as he tried out Kyle Busch’s Toyota Camry stock car in a PR stunt organized by Monster Energy at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. After a short briefing with Kyle Busch, who made some demonstrative laps on the track, “The Doctor” jumped behind the wheel of the 650 horsepower V8-powered Toyota racecar.
Charlotte is one of the fastest and most respected tracks on the NASCAR circuit, so the test was no joke. After a short warm-up, Valentino Rossi, who considered a switch to Ferrari’s F1 team at one point, reached speeds of up to 185 mph (298 km/h) and started posting fast lap times, which would have placed him in the middle of the Nationwide field.
You’d think a MotoGP rider can’t possibly be thrilled by the sensations offered by a NASCAR machine, but Rossi’s big smile when he got out the car seems to prove the opposite.
“It was so cool to understand the feeling! I have a lot of friends from Europe and Italy who follow NASCAR. It looks like it’s a completely different type of racing than what we do in Europe and I expected something more like this – exciting, high speed and a great feeling in the corner,” said Valentino Rossi. “In the bank you have a lot of grip, so you are glued on the racetrack. It was great, I enjoyed it a lot. I love driving the race car, and I always have, so it was exciting to drive a NASCAR,” he added.
Kyle Busch was quite impressed with Rossi’s performance. “He started out a little slow, which is fine, but every lap he picked it up a lot. He got to where he was running some competitive lap speeds – times that would put him in the top-15 in Nationwide Series practice. That’s pretty good for a guy in his first start, who is just coming over and getting used to things and someone that is used to driving on two wheels,” Busch said.
Although team owner Joe Gibbs joked about offering Rossi a contract, don’t expect that to happen anytime soon (or ever). You can watch what it was like for Rossi to drive a NASCAR machine in the video below.
By Dan Mihalascu
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